6 Honest Reasons Why Self Care Is So Hard (and Can Feel Lousy)

Not enough of us talk honestly about why self care is so hard. We all know what we need to do to be healthy and take care of ourself. We know how and when we should do these things, and even know why it is important. But when push comes to shove, somehow we just can’t get ourselves out of bed, to the gym, or in the kitchen. Some days you just don’t feel like doing what it is you know you need to do. So why is it that self care is so hard? Why is something that is supposed to feel good actually so hard?

This is one of the most common hurdles I help people recognize and anticipate as they embark on improving their wellness, and self care. It’s just not as easy as it sounds (or seems like it should be….). Understanding potential pitfalls can help you stay on track, and ultimately outsmart them.

1. Negativity Bias

Knowing all that you should do to take care of yourself isn’t the same as being able to do it, and can skew your perspective, making it hard to see what you actually are doing that’s healthy. What is called a negativity bias can be one of the most surprising potholes along the road to wellness. Turns out your thinking about wellness can make a big difference in your experience and participation of it in general. Thinking realistically about self-care can help you select the strategies that make the most sense to you.

2. Effort

Self-care takes work – be it getting your day behind you to get to bed on time, planning, shopping for, and preparing healthy meals, or keeping up with an exercise routine. When you are tired, and perhaps most in need of self-care, is exactly when exerting effort for anything can feel like an especially tall order – even if you know it will help you feel better on the other side. Acknowledging this reality can help you be realistic and gentle with yourself so that you can look for compromises and better solutions that better fit with your energy level.

3. Shame

Believe it or not, self-care can be a magnet for shame. Be it shame about not doing the things you know you want or need to do, or the more insidious shame that quietly questions whether you actually deserve care and compassion in the first place, shame can be a toxic bedfellow to self-care and is a powerful accelerant of self loathing. We live in a society full of shame, and as social beings are deeply vulnerable to its undercurrents that dictate much of our behavior. However, like many dark and negative emotions, shame can’t exist when held up to the rational examination of reality, or to what noted expert Brene Brown has called the daylight of awareness. Indeed recognizing and naming shame is the fastest way to dismantle its impact on your life.

4. Confusing indulgence with self-care

Indulgence stops being self-care when you feel guilty or unhappy with yourself, and this threshold is different for everyone. One person’s self-caring indulgence can be another’s gateway to self-harm, depending on your relationship with the activity, your capacity for moderation, and the reality of its consequences. Take for example eating dessert. For someone who maintains a healthy weight and body image, eating dessert is no big deal, whereas for someone struggling to shed unhealthy extra pounds, eating a dessert can be a dangerous threat to their hard-earned momentum. The trick to determining whether an indulgence is safe is to understand your relationship with an activity, be honest with yourself, and aim for moderation. Too much of a good thing is always too much.

Get tired enough, and you will lose discipline and self-control. Out come angry birds, a fourth episode of your favorite Netflicks series, more dessert, or some other habit-forming activity and substance. With your frontal lobe tired of making decisions, you are more vulnerable to distractions and impulsivity. When it comes to rewarding activities, that stimulate our brain’s dopamine system, it can be especially hard to exercise moderation. And worse, our engagement doesn’t always feel good. Seldom do we actually feel satisfied – one win at solitaire is never enough. Instead, we are often left chasing another win or left wanting for something else. This is the ultimate rabbit hole, and understanding its allure can help you make better choices and avoid falling in.

6. It’s not hard to set yourself up to fail

We all do this. We set up expectations that might seem reasonable on a really good day, but just aren’t possible when we are tired, or extra stressed. We don’t mean to set ourselves up for failure of course, but we do when we allow our hopes to become our expectations. Predictable feelings of frustration, guilt, and shame can leave us without our optimal coping during the very times we need it most.

If you find yourself struggling to do the things you know you need to do, take note that you are likely overextended – and not at your best. Instead of adding to what is already feeling overwhelming, try instead to recognize the realities of your overwhelm and give yourself a break. Can you ditch the shame and see how you can view what you are doing as a positive? Sometimes taking a new perspective can make the difference in helping you turn a corner, and get back on track.

4 Comments

This post is brilliant. I love it because *no one* (atleast as far as I’ve seen) talks about the potential harm of selfcare. I myself have been practicing it for the last 3 months, I’ve met some great milestones and reached some goals that I’ve never achieved before in my life. However, I’ve also shamed myself for when I was sick and skipped a work out or beat myself up for indulging in eating a dessert and so on. Your post describes exactly what I’ve been though – the ins and outs and with all the research I’ve done on google (which is a lot, trust me) yours came across as the most authentic, honest and relatable. I thank you for your post!

Thanks for your kind words and comment. I’m so glad this post was a help – I agree that self care can be a slippery slope, and like most things, works best in moderation. Being gentle with yourself is part of good self-care too, and is integral to cementing new habits. Congratulations on your hard work and progress, and thanks again for engaging.

Thank you! Self care is a phrase I stumbled across on Twitter a week ago and I immediately understood exactly what it meant and why it was important. I googled “self care is hard” and here I am. This post has most definitely helped me treat myself with more kindness in concrete ways these past few days. Not all that “get a manicure, light a candle, take a bubble bath” stuff that just seems so meaningless and out-of-touch. Like my inner turmoil has something to do with a bubble deficiency, lol I wish.

So glad to hear this post was a help to you – it is easy to feel overwhelmed by all the advice out there, and tuning into what really helps can be tough. I hope you will keep up your brave work of self compassion – it works, and it gets easier with practice 🙂